Using LED Displays for Good: World-Renowned Children’s Hospital Adds a New Dimension to Patient Healing

From lighting up casinos and sports arenas and marketing to customers in shopping malls to wayfinding at airports, LED Displays continue to grow in popularity among profitable enterprises looking to boost the bottom line. But, digital signage can also be used for good, and a prominent U.S. hospital is proving it.

Nothing tugs at the heart like a sick child or a child in pain. A famous, prestigious children’s research hospital in the United States is dedicated to treating kids with terminal cancer, as well as other catastrophic pediatric diseases, and they are winning battles every day. But the hospital understands that caring for a sick child goes beyond excellent medical care.

According to a recent study, a well-designed environment has a powerful impact on health by influencing the behaviors, actions, and interactions of patients, their families, and the staff who take care of them. (Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.) This type of patient-centered design for children and families has established a new standard, and is essential in promoting both physical and mental health. Their commitment to innovative healing strategies for each patient includes a peaceful, soothing environment that caters to the child’s emotions, while providing strength and renewal.

The hospital had a vision: Create a show-stopping feature in its new, three-story cancer treatment annex that could lift the spirits of its young patients and their families. While each floor of the annex had interactive elements for the patients to explore and use in play, the hospital’s ultimate goal was to build an experience that made patients feel as though they were virtually transported out of the hospital and taken anywhere they want to go. It also needed to accommodate patients who couldn’t walk into the room on their own. The special room needed to be accessible to children in wheelchairs and those who need to be wheeled into the room on their beds.

To create this truly immersive experience for patients, called The Imagine Room, the hospital teamed up with NanoLumens to dress the room in fine pixel pitch LED displays, which offer the most vibrant, colorful, detailed images available today. NanoLumens custom designed a flexible display that covered the room’s ceiling and back wall completely in a giant LED display. NanoLumens even designed the display to curve around the corner, for seamless, uninterrupted images. And a media company was contracted to integrate the technology and create innovative, original games for the kids to play on the wall and ceiling of the room.

The Imagine Room is not only a stunning feature of the cancer treatment annex, but it also fosters a positive attitude in patients, further accelerating the healing process for each of them. The children and their families can reserve the room and enjoy time together taking virtual walks on the beach, strolls through a forest, or creating virtual art projects on the wall and ceiling. They can also watch TV or movies in the room, split the screen to play games on X-Box and PlayStation, or finger paint on the walls. And for the patients who can’t leave their beds, they can control objects on the ceiling or wall, like paintbrushes or birds in flight, with simple hand gestures.

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